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Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

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Re: Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

#11

Post by jowiar »

I know this is possibly going a bit too far, but learning the basics of typography/design goes a long way.

https://practicaltypography.com is a pretty nice introduction on the topic, but overall, if there's any one major thing to keep in mind,

It's this:

Use white space.

The difference between something that looks thrown together and something that looks professional often come down to simply giving a shit about where text is and where text isn't. Does it look good? No? Try again.

Beyond that, don't go crazy with fonts. Two-maybe three weights/variants of one typeface will probably be sufficient -- I've generally found it's a lot easier for an amateur to make things that don't suck when they aren't trying to pair fonts.

Re: Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

#13

Post by wickawic »

_ah wrote: post #7

Counterpoint: be careful about going too far into the "cool" spectrum. When I've been hiring, the best-looking resumes were often the least qualified. If you're a visual artist, then sure, go nuts! But if you're a technical person then stick to the basics. Forcing someone to decode your pie chart to understand your skills is not a way to win points with a hiring manager. Go for bullet points, short sentences, correct…

For better or worse I index the opposite way. My CV is a markdown doc wrapped in the absolute minimum html/js to render it as a web page. If viewed as text it is perfectly readable sans a single line of css gobldeygook, if viewed as a web page it’s also perfectly readable.

Re: Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

#15

Post by ykl »

fuzzythinker wrote: post #14

I use html and css, I like its simplicity yet elegant look. https://johnleung.com/resume (pdf format is linked there as well) Template originally used by https://resume.stavros.io/ Which seems like he's not using anymore. His current one looks good too.

Psst, I think you meant "Principal", not "Principle". :)

http://www.dictionary.com/e/principal-vs-principle/

Re: Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

#17

Post by deeteecee »

bernardino wrote: post #4

Definitely recommend LaTeX: - Templates: https://www.rpi.edu/dept/arc/training/latex/resumes/ - For generating the resume, and minor custimizations: https://www.sharelatex.com/ - For generating the resume, and advanced customization: http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/texshop/

I've used latex but now I realize html/css might do the job better for me...

Re: Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

#18

Post by rileyt »

Here is my resume: https://standardresume.co/rileyt

It's built using Standard Resume [1], a tool that I built with two designers to answer exactly this question.

I would love any feedback on the resume style, as we are contemplating adding a few alternate styles to choose from.

[1] https://standardresume.co/

Re: Ask HN: Resumes that look good but professional too

#20

Post by guessmyname »

I have used and recommended this LaTeX template [1].

Template that I have also seen being used by many professional software engineers both applying and currently working at some of the big corporations like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon. It is clean, easy to read, easy to parse by most ATS (Application Tracking System) [2].

[1] https://github.com/sb2nov/resume

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicant_tracking_system

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